For thousands of years Amber from Northern Europe was a hot item in the rest of the then Western world. In modern times this no longer seems to be true. I don’t see it sold anywhere nor hear it much talked about.
So what happened? Did they run out of it or is it just not too impressive in jewelry compared to modern gems?
I guess it still is around. Somehow I don’t remember it being advertised, or mentioned in conversations. It looks pretty cool. And not expensive, or I should say common amber isn’t expensive. Not precious like it was in the past.
These things come and go. I have a jet neclace that was in a box of junk I bought at auction; it has very little value. Anyone who has read Les Miz will know that Jean Valjean made his fortune manufacturing imitation jet jewellery.
As others said, fashion comes and goes. But a larger thing is that it was more scarce when the largest source was pre-breakup of the Soviet Union. When Russia fell apart, things started coming out of the woodwork for money. Amber became very available and very cheap.
A few years ago, I wound up, by chance, at the Gdańsk amber fair. Suffice to say, they’re not running out of the stuff. Bought a few bits with insect inclusions, but there must have been tonnes of jewellery.
If this article is anything to go by, the reason you’re seeing less of it is maybe because the price has rocketed in China over the last 5 years, so exports are going there.
People are using it in woo medicine. Supposedly if you wear it next to your skin, it warms up, and releases a chemical that then gets absorbed by your skin and causes pain relief. We have a kid in the preschool who is a toddler and wears a necklace everyday for teething pain. I’m terrified she’s going to strangle herself with it, or swallow a bead and choke. Her mother said “It’s OK if she swallows a bead, because it’s natural.” Like people don’t choke on nature all the time.
Besides, I Googled it, and it doesn’t work. I didn’t really have to Google that to figure it out, I just wanted to see it in print.
I think it’s the end of the belief that it had medicinal and other magic properties that ended the fad. Now it has a more rational position in the jewelry world. People still like it enough that it’s still being turned into things to buy, just not fanatically.
There is also “amber” that isn’t fake but isn’t very old that is called copal. Fine if you just want it for looks, but sold deceptively if you want the idea of it being millions of years old.
Amber is incense. You can burn it to produce a pleasant smell that covers less pleasant ones.
In historical times everywhere stank of shit. Horse shit filled the city streets, and humans emptied their chamber pots out of the window. Amber was precious to those who could afford to buy it.
These days, with modern sanitation and a comparative scarcity of horses in cities, the market for incense is much reduced.